Best Practices for Real-Time GNSS Network Administration Webinar July 31, pm ET RTK/RTN Precision vs. Accuracy & Occupation Time Mark L. Armstrong, PLS – Geodesist Oregon State Geodetic Advisor NOAA, National Geodetic Survey

Look up the RTK rover receiver specifications – What accuracy is the receiver (sensor) capable of? – What will it take to get the most accuracy from the receiver? First Things First Part of the benefits of using an RTN over single base RTK – Limited ppm error UNDERSTAND THE ROVER SPECIFICATIONS (RMS)

Precision vs. Accuracy measurement from RTN correctors More questions? Is there systematic bias, multipath, and atmospheric errors to overcome? Always some! How is the accepted true (accurate) position determined? Accurate - Accepted truth

GNSS Errors and bias To some degree always present and ever changing

RTN Precision Measurement Field Testing ‘PRECISION’ is a computed statistical quantity to the source of the measurement – It is a measure of the uniformity or reproducibility of the result. A rover measurement from the RTN shows precision of the observation and is normally recorded in the data collector as the average position of many 1 second measurements on a mark. [This is not to be confused with the individual precision shown on the data collector screen for each 1 second shot.] RTK point occupation time = the number of 1 sec. epochs logged over a given period of time.

RTN Measurement Precision Typical (normal) RTN precisions at the 95% confidence level: – horizontal 2-3 cm – vertical (ellipsoid height) 3-5 cm – orthometric heights 5-7 cm (typical-using the NGS hybrid geoid model) Exceptional RTN derived precisions at the 95% confidence level: At the limit of RT technology – horizontal: ≤ 1 cm – vertical (ellipsoid height) ≤ 1 cm – orthometric heights ≤ 2 cm.

RTN Precision Measurement Field Testing ‘PRECISION’ is a computed statistical quantity to the source of the measurement. More measurements averaged = improved precision of the final coordinate. RTN testing on a MARK: -10 occupations at each interval in rotation for similar #SV and GDOP. 480s horiz. RMSE = m 480s vert. RMSE = m

What is Accuracy (Truth) ‘ACCURACY’ is a computed statistical quantity to the realization of the datum - Alignment of the RTN to the NSRS shows accuracy (typically by some method of post processing static observations of the RTN stations constrained by CORS coordinates) Accuracy is a measure of how the positions are aligned to “truth” NGS wishes to encourage all RTN’s to provide users with alignment to the NSRS as the representation of truth. NAD 83 (horizontal and ellipsoid height) NAVD 88 (orthometric height) Initial NGS guidelines support this alignment to the NSRS as: within 2 cm latitude and longitude, and within 4 cm ellipsoid height (95% confidence) using the CORS network weighted as truth.

Field Test RTN Correctors Horiz. Precision vs. Accuracy 1.Meets the project survey specification guidelines - horizontal component 95% conf. accuracy guidelines. 2.Meets the receiver 95% conf. 3.Different datasets may yield different results. Some Conclusions

Field Test Vert. Precision vs. Accuracy The black horizontal line represents the 4 hour independent published OPUS solution and considered the truth (and representing the NSRS) in this case, while the blue horizontal straight line is the average of the 10 individual 8 minute RTK shots. They are about 1.6 cm apart vertically but many of the individual shots were outside the 4 cm vertical project specification.

Survey Project Standards How good is good enough? Review typical accuracy spec. Only way to know and understand the working accuracy is to test. UserGuidelines.v2.1.pdf

Create a RTN Rover Check-in Mark

Questions For further reading see the ‘NGS Real Time Network Guidelines’ and NGS User Guidelines for Single Base RT GNSS Positioning